Saturday, May 24, 2008

M81-M82 Companion Galaxies LRsGB

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©2008 Richard Murray
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Notes: After about four months off without processing any images (I was taking them, just not processing them) I'm back with an image of M82(on top) and M81 (below).

This was taken at my home observatory and is an LRsGB with a synthetic green channel and Ha blended into the red channel. The Ha (hydrogen alpha filter) helped to bring out some of the active star forming regions (the red areas) particularly in M82 which is being severely distorted due to the huge gravitational pull of it's companion galaxy.

These two galaxies will eventually merge which is what will also happen to our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.


Date: 4/2/08(Images taken on three separate nights concluding on 4/2/08)
Object: M81-M82 Companion Galaxies
Telescope: Megrez 80mm APO
Mount: LX90
Camera: Atik 16hr
Filters: Luminance, Red, Blue, Ha14nm, Ha6nm
Exposure: Luminance-115 min (5 min subs), Red and Blue-20 min (4 min subs bin2x2), Ha 6nm 45min total, Ha 14nm 50min total
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, Maxim DL
Location: Burke Ave. Observatory, Three Rivers, Michigan

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4 comments:

Annie said...

BEAUTIFUL! It's a breathtaking image. It remind me of the String of Pearls comet. I like all the minute details.

Rick said...

Thank you Annie! I appreciate the feedback.

Rick

Anonymous said...

did you actually take these pics. and where is our galxy i mean like it does not end

Rick said...

Yes, I actually took these pictures from my back yard observatory.

And you're right, it's a big universe out there. Everytime we build a more powerful telescope we see further and further out so at this point in time no one knows when and if we'll ever find the end of the universe.

Rick